Clothing fasteners are generally well known and provide for various mechanisms for securing garments and providing a garment structure presented by the worn clothing. Many of these fasteners include generally known mechanical fasteners such as, but not limited to, hook and loop, interlocking zippers, and button and hole combination fasteners to secure various items of clothing in a predefined position. Generally, these fasteners do not allow for flexibility or expandability during use. Some of these fasteners are fixed between a pair of garment ends, to a particular location or at a particular distance. Use of these fasteners may pull the secured garment structure during use. In some cases, the wearer must alter their body mechanics or physical structure to conform to the inflexible garment with the fixed fastener. Therefore, these generally known fasteners provide limited use when fastening garments which may require flexibility or expandability in operation.
Various apparatuses are disclosed that secure articles of clothing in a downward angle. For example, apparatuses for holding down one's shirt are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,886, issued to Ellis on Jul. 3, 1990 and entitled “Infant Shirt Hold-Down”, teaches an apparatus with a wide, elongated elasticized section from which extends a pair of straps from each end thereof, with an operable fastener being provided at the end of each strap. The apparatus is intended to hold down a child's upper garment, such as a shirt. Ellis teaches that the apparatus is passed between the child's legs and the strap fasteners are fastened to the lower edges of the upper garment holding the shirt in a downward angle. Another example of patents which disclose a device which holds a garment in a downward direction includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,813, issued to Bosack and entitled “Shirttail Retaining Harness”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,814, issued to Courtney and entitled “Shirt Retainer”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,923, issued to Cohen and entitled “Shirt Hold-Down Device”
The above-described references related to shirttail retaining apparatuses disclose a device that would retain a shirt in a generally downward direction which would not be usable in the case of a garment worn on the lower extremities, but simply relate to securing an upper garment. Moreover, the fastening mechanisms contemplated for use with the shirttail retaining apparatuses are garter clips or jawed hinge clips, which require more dexterity and would be visible on the outer surface of the garment.
In contradistinction from the above-described devices, suspenders or suspender-like devices are known for holding up trousers or lower garments, rather than holding down upper garments. A disclosure for suspenders is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,429, issued to Lucier and assigned on its face to New England Accessories. Therein, Lucier discloses combination suspenders having interchangeable clip ends and button strap ends connected to the suspender straps for use with either button or buttonless trousers. While suspenders such as disclosed by Lucier are useful in supporting a lower garment, the clips contemplated for engaging the lower garment are jawed hinged clips which are openable and closeable via a latching lever. Like garter clips, jawed hinged clips require one to position the clothing between the jaws and then secure the clothing by engaging a lever and which are visible along the outer surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,669, issued to Rasdell et al. and entitled “Clothing Anchor Apparatus”, teaches an apparatus for securing clothing in position, and is particularly contemplated to anchor the front and back tails of shirts along the crotch area and providing a means for housing secret papers. Again, this appears to be limited to holding an upper extremities garment in a downward direction. This does not disclose nor would it be suitable for maintaining a lower extremities garment.
The fasteners employed by each of the above-described apparatuses provides a front facing structure which is designed for pinching the garment between a pair of clips such that the front facing structure can be visible along the outer surface of the garment panel.
It would be desirable to develop a lower garment suspension apparatus with flexible and resilient members employing fasteners which are easily separated but which are not visible from the front facing surface of the garment panel.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved clothing fastener which secures a garment against hostile ambient conditions and addresses at least a portion of the aforementioned shortcomings.